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Who is J.D. Vance, Trump’s VP pick? And, an R&B jam addresses climate change

Good morning. You're reading the Up First newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox, and listen to the Up First podcast for all the news you need to start your day.

Today's top stories

Former president Donald Trump has selected Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate in the presidential election. Vance, previously an outspoken Trump critic, has shifted his stance in recent years to become one of the former president’s steadfast allies. Here's everything you need to know about Vance, who rose to fame with his 2016 book Hillbilly Elegy. Trump announced his pick for vice president at the Republican National Convention, which kicked off yesterday. It was his first public appearance since the attempted assassination against him at a campaign rally in Butler, Pa., on Saturday.

The ceiling of the Fiserv Forum is shown on the day before the Republican National Convention on Sunday in Milwaukee. Delegates, politicians and the Republican faithful are arriving in Milwaukee for the convention, concluding with former President Donald Trump accepting his party's presidential nomination. The RNC takes place Monday through Thursday.
Bloomberg/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former President Donald Trump, left, and Sen. J.D. Vance, a Republican from Ohio and Republican vice-presidential nominee, during the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on Monday. Trump tapped Vance as his running mate, elevating to the Republican presidential ticket a venture capitalist-turned-senator whose embrace of populist politics garnered national attention and made him a rising star in the party.

  • 🎧 NPR's Danielle Kurtzleben tells Up First that there are two ways to look at Vance. On one hand, he has criticized Trump in the past, even comparing him to Hitler. On the other, he's now considered a convert. "Converts can be really powerful messengers,” Kurtzleben says. Being a former "never Trumper" and relatively young, he might potentially appeal to new voters.
  • 🎧 Ohio Public Media's Sarah Donaldson spoke to people in Vance's home state about what they thought of his vice presidential nomination. Here's what they had to say.
  • ➡️ Meanwhile, local GOP leaders aim to return Wisconsin to Trump in November. They hope the RNC will provide resources. This is their plan for building a ground game and engaging new voters.
  • ➡️ For the latest updates from the 2024 RNC in Milwaukee, check out NPR's live blog.

The Secret Service faces questions and sharp criticism following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. The shooter took advantage of a security hole because officials failed to cover a building 130 yards — around the length of a football field — away from where the former president was speaking. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who oversees the Secret Service, says an independent review of the incident will be made. Several members of Congress are launching multiple investigations of their own.

  • 🎧 “Many are at a loss at how this happened,” NPR's Claudia Grisales says. She adds that answers are expected quickly, especially ahead of the November election. A spokesperson for the Secret Service tells her that the agency traditionally assigns inner and outer zones when securing outdoor rallies. The building the gunman used was in the outer area, which was left to local law enforcement to secure. This morning, the agency issued a new statement saying any reports suggesting they’re trying to shift blame to local authorities are false.

President Biden is heading back out on the campaign trail. When gunshots interrupted Trump's rally this weekend, his campaign paused ads and outreach. He resumes his campaign today in Nevada, where he’s expected to talk about high rent prices and meet with Black and Hispanic civil rights groups.

  • 🎧 NPR's Deepa Shivaram says that for a long time, Biden's campaign has tried to break “Trump amnesia” by reminding people of what Trump said and did during his presidency. But now “it’s getting more complicated” because Biden’s language is more scrutinized. The president has to balance his calls for unity while contrasting himself with Trump in this close election. A House Democrat who requested anonymity tells Shivaram's colleague Claudia Grisales that discussions about replacing Biden have stopped for now due to instability after the Trump assassination attempt and concerns about more political violence.

Find all of NPR's latest news and analysis of the Republican National Convention on the Election tab of the NPR app. Download it today.

Deep Dive

Janet Johnson receives her college diploma from Kent Devereaux, president of Goucher College.
Jenny Abamu / WAMU
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for NPR
Janet Johnson receives her college diploma from Kent Devereaux, President of Goucher College.

People incarcerated in women’s prisons have less access to higher education opportunities compared to men’s prisons across the U.S., according to the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit that tracks educational opportunities for incarcerated people. For many people in prison, access to college courses depends on access to federal financial aid such as Pell Grants. Pell Grant-eligible courses are more accessible in men's prisons, but money isn’t the only issue. In 11 states, Vera found no college programs at all in women’s prisons. Here is why — and what could help:

  • 📚 A law went into effect last July that fully reinstated Pell Grant access to all incarcerated individuals for the first time since 1994. Though course offerings have expanded, many incarcerated people don’t know how to apply for Pell funding.
  • 📚 In Maryland, two bills by State Delegate Marlon Amprey were signed into law earlier this year. The laws require the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to help incarcerated people access federal Pell Grants. All 12 public colleges in the state will also eventually offer bachelor's degrees and credit-based certificates to incarcerated individuals.
  • 📚 Many incarcerated students have full-time assigned work, which means they can only take classes later in the day. Classroom space is also limited. Goucher College in Maryland plans to build trailers at each prison they work with so classes can be held all day. It's also working with the Department of Corrections to make college a student's work assignment.

Today's listen

Mike Roberts, left, and Will Hammond Jr., right, sing about the virtues of heat pumps. Heat pumps are more efficient than gas furnaces and can significantly reduce a home's carbon pollution.
Eduardo Lopez / The Switch Is On
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The Switch Is On
Mike Roberts (left) and Will Hammond Jr. (right) belt about the virtues of heat pumps.

What do R&B music and heat pumps have in common? They're both hot and cool — and they've somehow found themselves intertwined in a collab of sorts. A pair of musicians, Will Hammond, Jr. and Mike Roberts, released “(I’m Your) Heat Pump,” a slow jam full of double entendres.

  • 🎶 The clever song eases the listener into messages about climate change with its sultry lyrics and old-school vibe. Listen to the catchy tune here and learn why they wrote it. (via KQED)

3 things to know before you go

Tourists visit Nyhavn, the 17th-century waterfront, in Copenhagen, Denmark, in this 2021 file photo.
Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images / AFP
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AFP via Getty Images
Tourists visit the Nyhavn, a 17th-century waterfront, in Copenhagen, Denmark, in this 2021 file photo.

  1. Copenhagen announced a new initiative, CopenPay, to encourage more sustainable behaviors among tourists, such as walking, biking and taking public transportation. Rewards range from free ice cream to a free kayak rental.
  2. On Sunday, the price of Forever postage stamps increased from 68 cents to 73 cents. It's now the 6th price hike since January 2021.
  3. So far this year, California’s wildfire season has burned around 20 times more acres of land than this time last year. There have been over 3,500 wildfires across the state since the beginning of 2024 through early July, causing about 207,000 acres of land to burn.

This newsletter was edited by Suzanne Nuyen.

Copyright 2024 NPR

Majd Al-Waheidi
Majd Al-Waheidi is the digital editor on Morning Edition, where she brings the show's journalism to online audiences. Previously, Al-Waheidi was a reporter for the New York Times in the Gaza Strip, where she reported about a first-of-its-kind Islamic dating site, and documented the human impact of the 2014 Israel-Gaza war in a collaborative visual project nominated for an Emmy Award. She also reported about Wikipedia censorship in Arabic for Rest of World magazine, and investigated the abusive working conditions of TikTok content moderators for Business Insider. Al-Waheidi has worked at the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy, and holds a master's degree in Arab Studies from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. A native of Gaza, she speaks Arabic and some French, and is studying Farsi.
Brittney Melton